ROYAL MAIL MILLENNIUM COLLECTION LAUNCHED BY TOP DESIGNERS AT THE HOME OF TIME

The cream of Britain's artists, designers and image-makers, lined up along
the Greenwich Meridian Line today with Joanna Lumley to mark the launch of
Royal Mail's Millennium Collection - its own unique celebration of the dawning
of the new Millennium.

The special stamp programme for 1999 is the largest and m6st prestigious
commissioning of artwork ever by Royal Mail. A total of 48 stamps will be
issued throughout the year - each one created by a different acclaimed
image maker and devoted entirely to celebrating the past Millennium.

Artists David Hockney, Peter Blake, and Sir Eduardo Paolozzi RA and
illustrator Ralph Steadman are among the prestigious line-up responsible for
creating the collection. Designer David Gentleman has created his 99(TH)
stamp for Royal Mail with Timekeeping, which is the first stamp in the series
of 48.

As the stamps were launched, David Gentleman said: "I am delighted to he
part of Royal Mail's celebration of the Millennium and pleased that for this
occasion, Royal Mail has tumed to some of the country's most distinguished
artists and designers."

Four stamps will be issued every mouth in 1999, building into a single -
collection of 48 special stamps which look at British history and achievements
over the past 1,000 years.

Professor Jeremy Black of Exeter University, a leading historian, author
and consultant to this major initiative, said: "The designers have drawn
their inspiration from an eclectic group of subjects ranging from Peter
Brookes' depiction of Jenner's vaccination, Justin Mortimer's celebration of
Dr Who and Peter Blake's Live Aid.

"Each issue will be like the chapter of a book, and taken together as a
collection, will prove a fascinating record of the Millennium," he said.

Royal Mail Director and Chair of the Stamp Advisory Committee, Adam Novak,
said: "The Millenium stamps will provide a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to
own 48 miniature works of art, marking this historic event. As such, the
collection will be a significant souvenir for generations to come - serving
as testimony to the remarkable advances that have occurred in every sphere of
British life."

Leading design consultancy CDT was commissioned by Royal Mail to assist in
the realisation of this unique programme. Each stamp is numbered, from 48 in
January to number one in December. Other than the January set they will all
be issued on the first Tuesday of each month.

Images of the first two stamp issues for 1999 - Inventors' Tale and
Travellers' Tale - were unveiled at the Old Royal Observatory, Greenwich,
which is the official starting point of the new Millennium.

Inventors' Tale, on sale on January 12, pays tribute to the leading role
that Britain has played in the creation of machines and processes that changed
and defined the world.

Travellers' Tale will be on sale on February 2 and looks at the culture of
travel pioneered by Britain and how it has helped liberated people.

Stamp 44: 'Jet travel' is by George Hardie; Stamp 43: 'Liberation by bike'
by Sara Fanelli; Stamp 42: 'Linking the nation' by John Lawrence; and Stamp
41: 'Cook's endeavour' by Andrzej Klimowski. (Further details of both issues
are available).

All the stamps will be available in both presentation packs and as First
Day Covers in post offices starting from January 12 next year. A Christmas
gift of a 12 month subscription can be reserved now by calling 0845 071 2000.
A specially designed collection case has also been created for both the packs
and the covers.

Notes to Editors:

January 12 - Inventors' Tale

Stamp 48, 20p, 'Timekeeping' is designed by David Gentleman and is
inspired by the work of John Harrison who created the chronometer to solve the
problem faced by seafarers of keeping time accurately enough to enable them to
work out their longitude.

The 26p stamp, Stamp 47, is designed by Peter Howson, who was the Official
British War Artist for Bosnia. This stamp marks the British development of
steam power and celebrates the creations of such engineers as Thomas Savery,
James Watt and George Stephenson, who harnessed steam power to drive the
Industrial Revolution.

Husband and wife team Zafer and Barbara Baran mark the invention of modern
photography on Stamp 46 - the 43p value - and the work of William Henry Fox
Talbot, who used a negative to create a positive image. The image on the stamp
uses a number of Fox Talbot's original prints of leaves as a starting point
for the Barans' original photographic interpretation.

Stamp 45 - the 63p stamp - is designed by world renowned sculptor and
artist Sir Eduardo Paolozzi. He brings the series up to the 20th Century with
the computer - a British invention first conceived in the 19th century, But.
it was not until the Second World War that the modern computer was born. Its
logic was designed by Cambridge-educated mathematician. Alan Turing and
enabled codebreakers to read Germany's most secret signals encoded by Enigma
machines.

February 2 - Travellers' Tale

Stamp 44 - 20p - reflects the most recent achievement, Jet travel. Created
by graphic designer George Hardie, it represents the way that jet travel has
encompassed the world and features a de Havilland Comet.

The Wright brothers claim the fame for creating a flying machine that
carried a passenger, but the aeroplane was in fact a British invention. Sir
George Cayley built the first heavier-than-air flying machine which took
flight in Yorkshire in 1853. Another Englishman, Sir Frank Whittle, designed
and patented the first jet engine in 1930.

Stamp 43 - 26p - is by London-based artist Sara Fanelli and celebrates
'Liberation by bike.' It features the first ladies' safety bicycle, designed
by Dan Albone, of the Ivel Company, in 1896. It meant there existed a
convenient mode of transport available to all classes and used by men and
women alike. Early feminist and Labour groups were cycling clubs.

Stamp 42 - 43p - is designed by wood engraver John Lawrence and represent
the age of locomotion. It celebrates the work in the nineteenth century of
engineers such as Isambard Kingdom Brunel, whose railways and steamships
provided a network which linked major towns and cities to key ports around the
country and thence to the United States.

Stamp 41 - 63p - is by collage artist Andrzej Klimowski and marks the
beginning of scientific exploration with the travels of Captain James Cook in
the eighteenth century. Called 'Cook's Endeavour', it is inspired by the
logbook of Cook's voyages of discovery in the Pacific.